Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection of free-to-air, free-to-view and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channels for consumers as well as on-demand content. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most material viewed.
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. In 2019, Sky News was named Royal Television Society News Channel of the Year, the 12th time it has held the award. The channel and its live streaming world news is available on its website, TV platforms, and online platforms such as YouTube and Apple TV, and various mobile devices and digital media players.
Channel 4 News is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982.
John Morrison Cole was a Northern Irish journalist and broadcaster, best known for his work with the BBC. Cole served as deputy editor of The Guardian and The Observer and, from 1981 to 1992, was the BBC's political editor. Donald Macintyre, in an obituary in The Independent, described him as "the most recognisable and respected broadcast political journalist since World War II."
Matthias "Matt" Frei is a British-German television news journalist and writer, formerly the Washington, D.C. correspondent for Channel 4 News. He is now the channel's Europe editor and presenter of the evening news.
Fergal Patrick Keane is an Irish foreign correspondent with BBC News, and an author. For some time, Keane was the BBC's correspondent in South Africa. He is a nephew of the Irish playwright, novelist and essayist John B. Keane.
Michael Lawrence Crick is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He was a founding member of the Channel 4 News Team in 1982 and remained there until joining the BBC in 1990. He started work on the BBC's Newsnight programme in 1992, serving as political editor from 2007 until his departure from the BBC in 2011. Crick then returned to Channel 4 News as political correspondent. In 2014 he was chosen as Specialist Journalist of the Year at the Royal Television Society television journalism awards.
Alexander James Thomson is a British television journalist and newscaster.
Robert Kee was a British broadcaster, journalist and writer, known for his historical works on World War II and Ireland.
The political editor of a newspaper or broadcaster is the senior political reporter who covers politics and related matters for the newspaper or station. They may have a large team of political correspondents working under them.
Zeinab Badawi is a Sudanese-British television and radio journalist. She was the first presenter of the ITV Morning News, and co-presented Channel 4 News with Jon Snow from 1989 to 1998), before joining BBC News. Badawi was the presenter of World News Today broadcast on both BBC Four and BBC World News, and Reporters, a weekly showcase of reports from the BBC.
Robert James Kenneth Peston is an English journalist, presenter, and author. He is the political editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show Peston. From 2006 until 2014, he was the business editor of BBC News and its economics editor from 2014 to 2015. He became known to the wider public with his reporting on the late 2000s financial crisis, especially with his exclusive information on the Northern Rock crisis. He is the founder of the education charity Speakers for Schools.
Peter Taylor, is a British journalist and documentary-maker. He is best known for his coverage of the political and armed conflict in Northern Ireland, widely known as the Troubles, and for his investigation of Al Qaeda and Islamist extremism in the wake of 9/11. He also covers the issue of smoking and health and the politics of tobacco for which he was awarded the WHO Gold Medal for Services to Public Health. He has written books and researched, written and presented television documentaries over a period of more than forty years. In 2014, Taylor was awarded both a Royal Television Society lifetime achievement award and a BAFTA special award.
Liam James Halligan is a British economist, journalist, author and broadcaster. He is currently economics and business editor at GB News.
Stewart Peter Purvis CBE is a British broadcaster, broadcasting executive, author and academic.
Bill Neely is a Northern Irish journalist. He was the Chief Global Correspondent for NBC News from 2014 to 2021. He has been a broadcaster since 1981. Neely spent 25 years at ITN's ITV News before retiring from NBC in April 2021.
Kevin Bakhurst is a British journalist and media executive. He has been group director of content and media policy at the UK regulator Ofcom since October 2016. Previously, he was the managing director of news and current affairs and deputy director-general at the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ. He was formerly the controller of the British digital television news channel BBC News, a position he held from December 2005 until September 2012. He was also controller of the BBC News at One bulletin, and in May 2010 he became deputy head of the BBC Newsroom.
Faisal Islam is a British political and economics journalist who is the economics editor of BBC News and the occasional presenter of Newsnight. He was the political editor of Sky News from 2014 to 2019, and from May 2004 was business correspondent and later economics editor of Channel 4 News until June 2014.
From October 1988 to September 1994 the British government banned broadcasts of the voices of representatives from Sinn Féin and several Irish republican and loyalist groups on television and radio in the United Kingdom (UK). The restrictions, announced by the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, on 19 October 1988, covered eleven organisations based in Northern Ireland. The ban followed a heightened period of violence in the course of the Troubles, and reflected the UK government's belief in a need to prevent Sinn Féin from using the media for political advantage.
Antony Barnett is a British investigative journalist. Since 2007 he has worked as a reporter and presenter for Channel 4’s flagship current affairs series Dispatches. He joined Channel 4 after working for more than a decade at The Observer where he held a number of posts including as the newspaper’s Investigations Editor.
